Wärqenäh's stature as a major progressive in Ethiopian history has been underestimated in the past. It perhaps takes a biography to put his life in full perspective. It was as a progressive, both domestically in Ethiopia and internationally that he made his greatest contributions. Beyond that his life, so often, was the stuff of fiction rather than a life normally lived. First the dramatic events of the siege of Mäqdäla, an emperor's suicide and then his own ‘kidnapping’ at the age of three, followed by a peripatetic youth in north India leading to a plodding medical career in Burma. All the while his education was fostered by a bizarre alliance of military officers and dedicated missionaries. Without realizing it he became Ethiopia's first doctor, a most improbable event.

Following this romantic youth was an only slightly less dramatic middle age, still grounded in his Victorian upbringing. Wärqenäh's stodgy career in the prestigious Indian Medical Service was shaken to the core by the Battle of Adwa in 1896 and his abortive rush home to his birthplace. That set the stage for his eventual return three years later and medical service in the British diplomatic corps in the hot house atmosphere of Addis Ababa. Eventually he would serve three emperors and one empress of Ethiopia. This was all achieved by a boy brought up as an orphan Ethiopian in India with few prospects. Furthermore, after floundering through a series of difficult relationships with a variety of women in India and Britain, he dramatically married into one of Ethiopia's most aristocratic families.